Mask, Vaccine Requirements Favored: Virginia Survey Results

VIRGINIA — As the school year begins for many school divisions, a majority of respondents in a Virginia Patch survey favor mask and vaccine requirements in schools.

The survey on masks and vaccines, open from Thursday afternoon, through 2 p.m. Tuesday, generated 1,360 responses. The survey is not intended to be scientific but rather show public sentiment. Most of our Virginia Patch readers are based in Northern Virginia, which tends to be more blue than many areas of the state.

Respondents were asked about vaccines and masks in schools and other places. Gov. Ralph Northam and State Health Commissioner M. Norm Oliver ordered a universal mask requirement in K-12 schools. Some employers are starting to require the COVID-19 vaccine or regular testing from employees, including at several Northern Virginia school districts and local governments.

When asked if K-12 students should have to wear masks in school, 73.3 percent said yes. Another 25.4 percent said no, and the remaining 1.3 percent were unsure. Similarly, 74.7 percent said teachers and school staff should have to mask up, 23.3 percent said no and 2 percent said maybe.

Findings on vaccine requirements were similar. On the question of requiring the vaccine for teachers and school staff, 73 percent said yes, 23.1 percent said no and 3.9 percent said maybe.

A majority support a vaccine requirement for students that can get a vaccine — ages 12 and up — although support was smaller. A total of 65.6 percent said yes, 27 percent said no and 7.4 percent were undecided.

The percentage of respondents who said they got vaccinated was higher than the percentages of those who favor vaccine requirements for staff or students. The survey found 87.6 percent got at least one vaccine dose, 10.4 percent do not intend to get the vaccine and 2 percent intend to get the vaccine.

Most favor wearing a mask in public indoor places, which the CDC recommends in areas of substantial or high transmission of COVID-19. There were 66.9 percent of respondents who "always or nearly always" wear a mask indoors in public. Another 16.5 percent said they never or almost never do, 7.3 percent do more than half of the time, 3.4 percent do half of the time and 6 percent do half of the time.

Virginia's mask mandate expired for fully vaccinated people in mid-May, but the governor still recommends the CDC guidance for masking up indoors when in public. The survey found 66 percent would support a new mask mandate, 28.3 percent would not and 5.7 percent were unsure.

Even when the mask mandate expired, businesses could set their own policies to require masks or make them optional for the fully vaccinated. An overwhelming 83.1 percent of survey respondents say businesses should be able to require masks, while 14.6 percent said no and 2.4 percent were unsure.

Along with some employers implementing a vaccine requirement, some places like restaurants and concert venues have also done so. Our survey found 61.3 percent support a vaccine requirement to attend events in public settings or indoor dining. Those who do not support the requirement totaled 29.7 percent, and 9 percent were unsure.

Lastly, we asked readers for additional comments about the topics covered in the survey. Nearly 400 respondents provided optional comments.

Here are some highlights:

Schools

• Schools are required to keep students safe. If all teachers and all staff are not vaccinated, how can they claim to be keeping students (and each other) safe?
• Our kids need to be in school. People need to do the right thing and wear a mask and get vaccinated and STOP being selfish.
• If you don’t feel your child is safe in the classroom setting - you should make arrangements to do distance learning or homeschool.
• Vaccinations for teachers should be mandatory. I was shocked to learn it wasn’t. My daughter had Covid already and it was horrible. We need to look out for each other and our children.
• Delta is proven to be risky for children and as new variants develop and spread masks are the best way to protect the younger kids that are not yet old enough to get vaccinated.
• Please, give our kids their lives back and give them the choice to mask up.
• Our schools should also have a hybrid option. Every school I know that has already started the school year has also already sent students home for quarantine. This is ridiculous. You ask not to risk a stranger, but to risk our kids. Masks will not stop the spread in elementary schools. I pray I am wrong.
• My students have only been in school for a week and they are both now sick. They attend Roanoke [County] Schools.
• Once the vaccine is fully approved for children and in the official CDC vaccination timeline, then I think it should be required for school, just like other vaccinations. At this point, however, I don't believe the benefit for children is worth the additional division and politicization of the vaccination. I believe it will do more harm than good to mandate it at this time.
• On the mask front, I'm more okay with a mask mandate for public schools, as there really isn't a choice but to send your child there. However, private school mask decisions should be left up to the individual private school community and I feel the Governor overstepped in mandating masks in private education, as well.
• I personally am fully vaccinated but do not feel teachers, staff, students be required to get vaccine for various reasons, which is their right, but they must be required to wear masks while indoors.
• Give those eligible for vaccinations the freedom to choose to take a risk by not wearing a mask, but protect the ineligible children who don’t have an option to be vaccinated by offering online school or require masks in school for U13.

Other opinions on masks/vaccine

• I feel that people should be responsible for themselves and considerate of others. As long as the cases continue to be high, I will continue to wear masks inside and will get the booster.
• It's rather sad that we even have to have a survey. This is a public health issue with consequences of life or death. History will look askance at how politics and the culture of selfishness condemned people to the ravages of this virus. We should be fighting the virus, not each other.
• When will we decide that this virus has become endemic and we need to learn to live with it? What are we waiting for? 100% vaccination? Total eradication of this virus? We cannot wait for the risk to be zero percent before getting back to normal because that will NEVER be the case. If our children must mask up again this school year, they will ALWAYS need to mask up.
• My family is weary. We have done EVERYthing that has been asked of us over the last 18 months. I believe it’s time to break this cycle of fear and move on.
• I don't think evidence of vaccination should be required to attend all indoor events as a mandate, but I do think it's okay if an event or organization wants to require it. I do think masks should also be mandated at crowded outdoor events. I worry about my 1 year old who can't wear a mask.
• Businesses should be able to decide what rules they want on masking and vaccination for their own employees and customers, not the government.
• I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandates. I feel we should present the information and evidence and then let people make up their own minds. Take personal responsibility for your choices. Privately owned businesses should have the right to make their own rules too.
• Eligible people should be REQUIRED to get vaccinated unless they have a compelling medical reason not to. Proof of vaccination shld be required to access many activities, as NYC is doing.
• Telling me to wear a mask tells me the vaccine doesn’t work. Yes, vaccinated people can get the Delta variant, but are much less likely to have a severe case. We will never eradicate this virus, but like the flu virus, it will always be there, spiking from time to time. In my opinion, we need to let the virus run its course. The only mask that is truly effective is the N-95 mask.
• Everyone should have the right to choose but I feel like if more people wore mask and got vaccinated we would be done with this already.
• I’m done with mask wearing. My family all had Covid last year and we are all vaccinated. I hope that at least vaccinated kids and staff can go maskless soon.